When the Walls Break Down
by anyabar1987
Summary: JJ leaves on vacation and the team gets called to Agnes Washington.
1. Briefing

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or Higher ground they belong to their respective owners.

_Note: in this story higher ground covered the school year ending in 1999. Criminal minds started in 2005 and this takes place mid way season 3 before JJ announces that she is pregnant although this has been made into being late may early June coinciding with the end of the school year at horizon/ start of summer program._

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JJ swept across the room as she picked up reports from various desks with a smile on her face.

Spencer watched from across the room and asked Emily, "Does JJ seem happier than usual?"

"Just a little bit, has she said anything about anything special happening?" Emily joined in the JJ watching.

"Not to my knowledge but you never know with her." Spencer said as he looked towards the offices.

JJ walked up towards them as she shifted the reports. "You can't hide that I just saw you watching me."

"You have an air about you today, your mood it is very contagious." Spencer stuttered.

"I found out last night that starting tonight I am on vacation. I originally wasn't going to be able to get this week off but they found a mistake in the paper trail and realized they can spare me for the next week."

"You never said anything about this week, is it important?" Emily said looking after JJ.

"Not really, no, just an old anniversary and my family has access to an exclusive timeshare." JJ shrugged, "but I might not go, all depends on what I decide to do with my vacation."

Morgan looked around the room, "Where is JJ?"

"Uhh, she told me yesterday that she was going on vacation, it was a last minute thing because of paperwork getting mixed up." Spencer reported.

Rossi responded, "How come she didn't tell us?"

"I don't know, I think we only found out because the two of us confronted her yesterday." Emily frowned.

Hotch opened a folder, "This came across my desk this morning. Last month a backpacker up in Agnes Washington stumbled across this." Hotch held up a picture of a sturdy lean-to made entirely of tree branches. "Knowing that this area was little used by the locals the backpacker looked around, stating that he was very impressed with the structure. Inside the lean-to were seven bodies of varying decomposition. The local authorities believe that the most recent was at least a year old."

Emily winced at the pictures of each of the bodies, "this has been known about for almost a month and it is just reaching your desk?"

"The local authorities were treating this as a cold case with no leads until two nights ago a patrol found this on the other end of the trail." Hotch held up another picture. "No details were released about the dump site so it is believed that this is not a copycat. Inside left exactly as the other seven were was an eighth body. She had been dead for less than forty eight hours."

"How come locals don't use that part of the woods? Aren't all woods the same?" Morgan asked.

"Not exactly, prime locations for recreational use by locals would be determined by access to hiking trails and prime sporting locations such as rivers and lakes or areas rich in wildlife for hunting." Spencer announced.

"This area is cut off from rivers and hiking trails by the one main road that runs through the area making it difficult to get to any. It is also in the vicinity of a couple schools making it illegal to discharge a firearm." Hotch explained, "To the south of this vicinity is Laurence Hastings Prep and to the North is Mount Horizon wilderness therapy school."

The fax came to life and spit out a paper, Hotch picked it up, "Alright, they have gotten a positive ID on the recent body. She was a prostitute known for her gothic style from Seattle Washington. She was last seen a week ago talking to a man in his mid-twenties. No one was able to come forward with a positive description.

Emily looked at the picture that had come through, "She was stripped of all her piercings and was left there in a flannel shirt and jeans. She looks like she was going for a hike."

Garcia came up on the monitor, "They have confirmed based on the rate of decomposition that the bodies are all at least one year apart from each other."

"lets get to Agnes Washington then." Emily nodded

Hotch set the file down, "wheels up in thirty minutes then."

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AN: So anyone who might be familiar with my writing will note that this is a little different and the chapters are shorter. I have had this story sitting around for some time and I decided to put it up. I may expand on it in the future but at the present the story is just collecting dust. I ask that you review my story and give me some ideas on how to expand it.

Please review

Feed a Starving Author


	2. Agnes Washington

AN: Thank you to Jakefan for going over the story for me and I promise to fix the first chapter once I have a little time and inspiration on my hands. Here is chapter 2 at 3 in the morning because the humidity is keeping me awake.

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The team disembarked from the jet to be greeted by the towns Police Chief, "Welcome to Agnes, never thought I would be welcoming the FBI to my little corner of the earth." The man greeted, "I am Sheriff Curtis Swan by the way."

Hotch introduced the team, "I am SSA Aaron Hotchner, and these are SSA David Rossi, SSA Emily Prentiss, SSA Derek Morgan and SSA Dr. Spencer Reid.

Morgan eyed the man quickly before looking around, "You wouldn't happen to have a daughter who dates Vampires would you?"

"No, I would be rich for each time I have heard that one, although I do have a step daughter Gracie, who hates the Twilight books with a passion." Sheriff Swan laughed

"I am very supportive of that outlook. A few members of the team have made me read those books and I feel that they are very shallow and poorly written. Basically an ape is capable of writing better than that. The only thing the author had going for her was the concept of forbidden love." Reid answered

Sheriff Swan nodded and changed the subject eager to get away from the Twilight talk, "Now how about I get you folks to the Inn? I hope you don't mind but I had my Deputy's move all the files to a room in the Inn I run with my wife, I just don't have the room at our closet of a police station to accommodate your team as well as my guys."

"I am sure everything will be fine, do we have access to your network there though?" Hotch asked the Sheriff.

"No, but not because of being at the inn, purely because Agnes is still stuck in the paper age, we don't have the income or the crime rate to necessitate an electronic system." Sheriff Swan replied.

"Well at the very least we are going to need an internet connection so we can connect to Washington D.C." Morgan informed

"As soon as we get back I will see about getting your room linked with the network in our house, it isn't fast but it is steady and reliable, important thing is it isn't dial up, which we had till just last year." Sheriff Swan nodded as he showed them the way to his waiting SUV. "Sorry for the tight fit but it seats six passengers, while also being good on the backroads, when we get back to town one my deputies will be on hand with his cruiser if you need to go in two directions."

"That will be helpful, do you think you could take us to the dump sites?" Hotch asked the chief.

"Of course, let's just get back into town, it is quite a hike out there so we will need to get some supplies before going out there." Sheriff Swan replied as he closed up the doors to the SUV before getting behind the wheel.

"So what are your observations of this dump site?" Prentiss asked the Sheriff.

"He had to know what he was doing. The killer I mean, not many people venture out on the trails he chose and he was familiar with building a sturdy lean-to as well as he for some twisted reason used a portable bear cage that he built the lean-to around." The Sheriff described everything from the dump site.

"The Unsub wanted to make sure his victims were safe while also protected from the elements." Morgan replied.

"Are you familiar with the Lean-to's that he uses?" Rossi asked

"Well as a guy who lives up here in the mountains, I come across many different styles and some are more effective than others. This maniac uses a style very similar to the horizon lean-to. I have watched some of their lean-to building competitions that they have on occasion." Sheriff Swan answered

"Have you looked at anyone at this Horizon as being our unsub?" Hotch asked.

"I have actually been hoping it was a coincidence. I was looking for any reason why I shouldn't have to restrict Gracie from going up to spend the Summer there. She chooses nearly every summer to go and join in on the summer program in some shape or form up there. She has had a passion for working with these kids even though most are older than her ever since she was five and had to be rescued by a couple of the students." Sheriff Swan sighed, "I have never before known a six year old who knew exactly what she wanted to do upon growing up and now she is fifteen and that passion is stronger than ever."

"Is your daughter there now?" Prentiss asked concerned

"Next week is when their summer program starts, this is the first year she was going to stay in the cabins with the students. Up till now she has stayed with Sophie and Peter the directors of the school." Sheriff Swan answered before asking, "Do you really think there could be a connection?"

"You say that it is a school for troubled kids, it is possible, but we will need to see any information you have on these students." Hotch answered.

"I have a few files on different kids from Horizon, usually for petty things, I have one on Home invasion and Property destruction but the others are all lesser crimes than that. I have asked before from stuff from Peter but all he has is observation notes and confessions on most of his older students. When a student ages out at eighteen or graduates shortly thereafter their files leave with them because where any that came to him through the court system were tried as minors, which is what landed them there." Sheriff Swan shook his head.

"So the files are all sealed." Rossi shook his head

"And I have not had probable causes to be able to get the court order to get any of them unsealed." Sheriff Swan sighed.

"Alright, when we get to town, Reid and Prentiss, I want you to go up to Horizon and see if you can get a list of all the students that have gone through Horizon since it opened. Get the list to Garcia and see if she can find the students who have a criminal record. We should be able to go from there to get into their juvenile records." Hotch ordered

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Please review


	3. Seeing and Learning

So I have gotten a lot of reviews from people on this story and I would just like to say thank you to everyone: Thymara, jaydetapscott, IniTiniNini. I hope you all enjoy this chapter as well.

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Once in town Curtis showed them to the Inn and the room in which all the files had been moved to as well as five rooms that had been set aside for them to stay in. "And for your dining pleasures, my wife runs the restaurant that is attached to our house and she has said you may eat on the house whenever you please. She is grateful that you have come to help us with this case."

"Thank you, is there anyone available who can take Reid and Prentiss to Horizon while you take the rest of the team and I to the dump site?" Hotch asked as he set his bags down in the room that was set to be their base of operations.

"Of Course, Hank can drop you off on his way to check in on one of our usual haunts." Curtis explained as he gestured to a uniformed deputy who was heading to his car.

In the car Prentiss looked at Hank, "So what did the Sheriff mean when he said you were going to check a usual haunt?"

"I am going to check for signs of poaching. There is an area up river where we have caught quite a few illegal hunts going on. The joys of being a Police Deputy and a tracker is that I get to follow quite a few hunters who think they are being discreet." Hank sighed, "I have been with this department for over ten years now and the only reason I haven't moved on is because my wife Kat loves Horizon too much to leave."

"Your wife is a staff member there?" Reid asked

"She is now but when we first started dating she was a very hurt seventeen year old, she was a student at Horizon." Hank responded

"Is there any way we can ask her a few questions?" Prentiss asked

"Not unless you want to either wait till Saturday or hike up into the mountains to find her. She took a group of older students up to Dog's Peak so that one of them can realize their own dream of planting a flag up there. It is the ultimate dream of all students at Horizon, to plant a flag I mean." Hank sighed, "Kat couldn't stop talking about it when she came back from her hike up there and how much it meant to her."

Hotch, Morgan and Rossi hiked behind Curtis as they climbed there way along a trail that could hardly be called that. They had been hiking for nearly an hour when they crested over a small hill and saw the site.

"We opened up the cage and removed the remains however we kept the lean-to and cage in place just in case we needed to look through it for more evidence. We didn't tape off the area because it is so isolated out here however some of the trackers that work for my department have been bringing their scent dogs out here to make sure people aren't just wandering around the site. Last week the dogs caught a new scent that had walked around the campsite and the trackers found tread from two sets of boots. The dogs followed the scent and at the other end of this trail which doesn't get any easier by the way was a fresh body."

"So our Unsub came back to his dump site with a new victim to find it violated so he took his victim who was still alive and then killed her further up the trail?" Rossi asked.

"It looked like they might have come in that way. But it isn't really a hike a bunch of green horns should be attempting. We can drive up to the other end of the trail and I can take you up the trail from that end a bit but even I don't feel comfortable hiking the trail from here to there, not without lots of rope and an experienced guide." Curtis shook his head.

"While we would really like to hike the entire trail we will adhere to your warnings, are you sure that we can experience what most of this hike was like from that end?" Hotch asked

"Oh yes, in order to get to the most recent dumpsite we will have to climb down a ten foot rock face and from there the elements get more challenging." Curtis nodded

Rossi nodded, "So the unsub would have to be physically fit and have lots of experience in the woods to even try and drag a prostitute out here."

"Most definitely, I have quite a bit of experience and I am not even comfortable taking you guys on this trail." Curtis said shaking his head as they got ready to return to the SUV back an hour through the woods.

Prentiss and Reid stood up as a well-built dark haired man walked in and set down his back pack. "Sorry I was so long, I was out on a short day hike as part of the Noinuer that is going on this week. Sophie radioed me that I had visitors but we were already on our way back. I am Peter Scarbrow by the way."

"SSA Emily Prentiss and this is SSA Dr. Spencer Reid. We are from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, can we talk to you in private?" Prentiss asked Peter.

"Of course, my office is just back this way." Peter nodded and lead them to his office.

Just as they were getting into the Office Sophie came running in, "The Sun Dogs just radioed in, Dustin just had an asthma attack and his inhaler is low."

Peter kept his composure, "It is alright, Sophie have Scott and Shelby take the replacement up to them. Those two have some unanswered tensions and they work well together on the trail. The two of them should also be able to evaluate whether Dustin needs to come back to the school or not."

"Are you sure given their past?" Sophie asked

"Sophie they are adults and they can do as they please but they would be the best pick." Peter nodded as Sophie left to go ask the given people.

"What is a Noinuer?" Reid asked Peter.

"It is an event that was dreamed up by Kat, one of my councilors. She was a student here and when she was a senior she came up with the idea that everyone is too screwed up for a prom so they planned a Morp which was a backwards prom. After she graduated she came to me and asked that we do something similar with a reunion only she called it a Noinuer, anyone who graduated or left the program on a good note is invited to spend this week every year here at Horizon while all the students are on week long expeditions giving the teachers and myself time to reset the school for summer program. The former students help out with the restructuring as well." Peter described, "So what can I do for you?"

"We need to email a list of all your students to our tech analyst back at Quantico. We have probably reason to believe that someone who came through your school has been murdering women and leaving them in the woods here in Agnes." Prentiss informed the man

"Alright, I can give you my records of students and some of my notes on the students from their therapies but as you have probably been told when a student leaves here so does their juvenile record. But from the information given to me it is highly unlikely that any of my current students that I have now would be the killers, I mean the oldest student would only have been nine or ten when it started." Peter nodded as he turned his computer around. "I have it all here on my computer along with current address' for nearly every student, even the students who were kicked out for not being a good fit in my program I keep in touch with in some shape or form if they want it. Some I don't have contact with but I keep my eye out for them."

At the top of the list was a name with no known contact information, "Shelby Merrick, you said there was a Shelby here but you have no information on her, unless you have more than one Shelby." Reid asked

Prentiss copied the file to an email which she sent straight to Garcia to run background checks on all the names.

"I actually don't, however Shelby stays in touch via her younger sister Jess Merrick and she shows up every year. Shelby has always been a closed book, even after everything that happened in her life she never opened up completely, I learned more about Shelby from her sister than I ever did from her." Peter nodded

"Do you often get sibling pairs up here?" Prentiss asked again

"No, not really but Jess begged me to help her, just as I had helped Shelby. Jess wanted out of her abusive life and she didn't want to go down the same road her sister had gone. Jess was officially the youngest student I had taken on, Jess hadn't even started the ninth grade and I had to get special permissions for her to be here that summer." Peter described

"Can you tell us what went on in those girls' lives? It seems like you know?" Reid asked

"I am sorry, but you will have to ask Shelby that, she is an adult and is officially not my student any more. I am bound by law not to tell you any specifics but I will tell you to tread carefully. Abuse is a very frequent variable among my students." Peter nodded

"Could we talk to this Jess?" Prentiss asked.

"If you want to travel to Bangkok, Thailand you can. Jess is on a mission's trip working with an agency that removes children from the sex trade." Peter shook his head, "I will tell you I have had a few students go onto really amazing things. I don't like going behind my former students' backs however if the two of you would like to spend the night here at the school and talk with them in a less threatening manner they might be willing to open up to you."

"Thank you, we will need to talk to our boss but if it is alright we will be back in a few hours." Prentiss nodded as she went to the door.

"If you need a ride into town, I can give it to you." Peter stood up nodding, "I need to get something from the store."


	4. The Students

**The Students**

Reid and Prentiss walked into the command base where Hotch was talking to Garcia over the phone. "You can probably exempt from the search any students who attended the school for less than six months. Sheriff Swan believes if our Unsub was a student at Horizon then they would have had to be at Horizon longer than that to gain the skills in order to hike a trail like that."

"Got it; that only kicks about three students off the list. Horizon doesn't find many students a bad fit to the program evidently." Garcia responded over the phone. "I am obviously removing former students who have died from the list."

"Any students died from causes at the school?" Morgan asked

"No, babycakes. There have been five students who have died four died in various accidents unrelated to anything that happened at Horizon and the other died of an over dose related to an addiction that got him admitted to Horizon, he was there only two days when his parents removed him following an overdose to drugs that he had smuggled into the school." Garcia answered over the phone

"So most of the kids who have been successful in the program have kept their noses clean?" Rossi asked

"It seems that way no one has come back flagged as a psycho killer. I will get back to you as I sort through what information I do have." Garcia said as she tapped away at her keyboard… "oo this isn't good!"

"what isn't very good?" Reid asked

"Scott Barringer was accused four years ago with stalking a woman obsessively. The person in question didn't press charges so they were dropped however the person in question was our very own JJ!" Garcia gulped

Morgan was already on the phone trying to get a hold of JJ. After a minute of listening he hung up the phone, "Her phone is off and goes right to voice mail. She even went so far as changing her message to say she wouldn't be checking her phone for the rest of the week."

"Maybe Reid or I can talk to this Scott and see what we can find out." Prentiss nodded, "we have been invited to spend the night at Horizon and to our luck there is a good deal of former students at the school for a reunion type event this week."

"Alright see what you two can dig up and keep us updated on anything you might find out." Hotch nodded

**Please review**


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